I heard Summer scream from around the corner. When I ran over and looked, I saw the most horrifying scene I could ever imagine. A mess of unmistakable pieces of a human, all over the floor, Summer and two others next to it, white as sheets. The pieces on the floor looked… frozen. A chill ran down my back. What the heck had happened here? Summer was beside herself, I think she might have been traumatized.
“What happened, Summer?” I asked softly, almost not daring to look at the massacre in front of me.
“Frank… shattered…” she sobbed. Frank? Oh, my god. It hit me like a brick. My eyes dropped and then I saw parts of his leather jacket and his black hair. Time seemed to stop for a moment while I took in the scene, but then reality took over again.
“I’m getting Principle Vagina.” I said loudly.
More people were starting to enter the hallway now, so I ran to Principle Vagina’s office and dashed through the door without knocking.
“Principle, Frank Palicky shattered in the hallway!” I yelled. He looked at me uncertain, clearly not understanding what I meant. How could he. Hell, I had seen it and I barely understood it.
“Something happened that… I don’t know, made him freeze to death or something… and his body… broke.” I felt the tears well up in my eyes.
Frank had been so kind to me, he stood up for me when a bully started to pick on me and I helped him with his homework. We laughed together during lunch, he wanted to be an actor. He always said he wanted to be the biggest bad guy in Hollywood one day. “One who’s catchphrase becomes a meme, you know?” Sometimes he tried out his ‘crazy bully’ routine, yelling “Are you making fun of me? Are you saying my family is poor?!” I always chuckled when he did the trembling eyelid-trick. He was my friend. I choked, unable to say or explain anything else.
Principle Vagina didn’t say a word but stood up from his desk to follow me to the site. It seemed as if the whole school was there now, people staring at the remains of Frank, looking at Summer, who was still crying and some whispering to each other. I couldn’t stand to watch this.
When I arrived at school the next day, I saw that Summer had made a cross from two pieces of wood and had placed them against Franks locker. There were already some flowers placed in front of it. I knew she had been having a crush on him for over a year, she must be heartbroken.
I like Summer. She is never bitchy or mean. I heard her crazy scientist grandfather Rick is living with them now and that he drags Morty along on adventures.
The last time Frank and I were alone together, I helped him with the math homework Mr. Goldenfold had given us the day before. That must have been only a week ago, yet it felt like I had lived two lifetimes in the last 24 hours. I hadn’t slept at all that night, my eyes were puffy and dark circles were forming around them. How had this happened? Why Frank? He was a good guy, wasn’t he?
“Thanks a lot,” Frank had said last week, when he left my house, “I’m gonna ace this test.” His smile had been genuine.
“I’m sure you will, Frank.” I had answered.
“Are you saying my family is poor?!” He replied harshly, pulling out the fake knife he carried with him for just this joke, and we laughed out loud.
Damn it, he would have been an great bad guy. I’m still wondering if he did ace the test, though. I think the last words he said to me were “See ya later.” only an hour or so before he died, when we went off to different classes.
And I did.
I did see him later.
Only he wasn’t ‘him’ anymore.
People from the morgue had cleaned up the pieces and the janitor had mopped the floor, still everyone was walking around the patch where the body had been.
I felt my knees go weak, looking at that cross, knowing Frank would never be there again, acting all cool in his leather jacket, joking and acting. Summer was wailing like a banshee, and at that moment I felt all her grief in addition to my own and I slumped on the floor. The funny thing is that the bully was kneeling there too, grief-stricken. They had become friends as well. At that moment, he and I, unlikely companions in this crazy moment, were more similar than we had ever been. He, a thickset ginger with acne and I, a blonde curly-haired girl, united in the loss of our mutual friend Frank Palicky. From the corner of my eye I think I saw Summer’s parents walking along the corridor with Principle Vagina, but I couldn’t bring myself to tell her.
“What kind of god let’s this happen?!” Summer cried out, holding a bouquet of flowers, and sinking to her knees as well. I don’t really know how long I sat there, it was probably just a minute, but it felt like forever.
“Bye,
Frank.” I whispered eventually, wiping my eyes dry. “See ya later.”
(30/1/18, 14:41u)